Friends
I have recently returned from Superintendents’ Conference where a preacher suggested that one of the jobs of the Church is to be “a guardian of beauty.” I was interested when discussing this sermon with others, that the part that they latched on to was not that part, and they almost hadn’t heard it, whilst engaging with other bits that I don’t remember being said – the perennial problem or perhaps gift of the sermon-writer. But the phrase has stuck with me.
I remember being told many years ago that in the period when we were as a nation building huge and beautiful churches, part of the reason was so that people who were living in squalid and difficult environments with poor pay earned at risk to life and limb, could come somewhere on a Sunday, or even drop in at the end of the working day, and see something of the promise of heaven. The beauty of the wood and stone carvings, the tapestries, the silver and gold, the artwork was there to offer us something to hold on to, as many of our great buildings still do.
Methodists have always been scathing about an approach that offers “pie in the sky when you die” and rightly so. When Jesus came as a human and offered “life in all its fullness” he was talking about a hope for today, not for something in the far-off future – or rather, not just something in the far off future, for we Methodists do believe in Heaven. Nevertheless, there is something about the church building and its grounds offering beauty, a calm space and a place of meditation and prayer as well as praise and worship; the ability to dig deep into the well of peace as well as times of fun and fellowship. This summer, having tackled the challenges of the cold and its impact on our aging heating systems over the winter, we might want to look at our buildings from an aesthetic point of view. Do we still hold to that vision that wanted our buildings to look like a little piece of heaven? We can see it in some of the old Central Halls, in Wesley’s Chapel and in some of the churches around our circuit, but is there more?
I wrote a few weeks ago about whether our churches looked welcoming to those passing by and perhaps just getting a glimpse through our windows. Now I am asking the question that goes further than that: are we not just welcoming? Are we beautiful?
God bless, Vicci